Air Inuit’s Montreal-Kuujjuaq route plagued by continued delays
Airline continuing to ‘adapt to evolving circumstances’ since acquiring the route in August
An Air Inuit B737-800 NG arrives in Kuujjuaq in July 2024. The airline took over the Montreal-Kuujjuaq route from Canadian North in August. (CNW Group/Air Inuit)
Since taking on the Montreal-Kuujjuaq route from Canadian North four months ago, Air Inuit has faced consistent delays the airline says are caused by “complex scheduling realities” and climate change.
Isabelle Gordon says she was going home to Kuujjuaq on Nov. 28 from a work trip in Montreal. She got to the airport at 7:45 a.m. for the 9:30 a.m. departure time for the daily Air Inuit flight that services the biggest community in Nunavik.
It took nearly 10 hours before she boarded her flight.
“Ten hours of your life wasted — not even on a flight, just at the airport,” she said in a phone interview.
Gordon is not alone. Passengers have been critical of Air Inuit’s management of the new route since the airline took over Aug. 6.
At the Montreal airport, every hour, Gordon said she was notified that there would be a delay. The cause? “Mechanical.”
She would go to the counter to ask for more information, but the reply remained the same: “Mechanical.”
The flight was delayed four times until 1:30 p.m., when the airline announced a three-hour delay. After those three hours, there was another hour delay.
Gordon said she boarded her plane — a Nolinor jet — at 5:55 p.m. In total, the flight was delayed seven times. Originally scheduled to arrive in Kuujjuaq around noon, she didn’t make it home until 8:40 p.m.
“I was out there for hours doing nothing. I got my shoes cleaned because I had so much time,” she said.
Gordon said she was given a $27 voucher for food at the airport and felt she couldn’t leave the airport because each delay was incremental.
“They could have delayed it for three to four hours instead, so I could go out and do something. But no, I had to wait there for 10 hours because it was an hour delay each time,” she said.
After the first delay, she was given the option to travel the next day with a hotel and meal voucher, but accepting the offer would have meant she would have been put on standby for that flight.
She declined because she had things she needed to get done in Kuujjuaq, including a trip to the adult education building to pay for her newly earned driver’s licence.
Gordon said she understands cancellations and delays are a reality of travel in the North. But in her experience, the Montreal-Kuujjuaq route was a reliable flight.
“Air Inuit is making it unreliable,” she said.
Nunatsiaq News tracked Air Inuit flights between Montreal and Kuujjuaq for 15 days between Oct. 19 and Nov. 2. In that time, every flight from Montreal to Kuujjuaq except one was late. Four were late by over an hour.
On average, the flights were delayed by around 43 minutes.
From Kuujjuaq to Montreal, there were two instances where the flight arrived early; every other flight was late. The average delay was lower, around 17 minutes.
In comparison, Nunatsiaq News also tracked Ottawa-Iqaluit flights by Canadian North. In the same time frame, going to Iqaluit, five flights arrived early, while one flight was over an hour late. The average delay was just under 10 minutes.
Going from Iqaluit to Ottawa, the flight was early on 10 occasions, with the average delay time being six minutes. Both airlines had one cancellation during the data-gathering time frame.
The Winnipeg-Montreal route, operated by Air Canada, was also tracked. Both going there and back, flights were either on time or early on every occasion except one 50-minute delay on Oct. 27, caused by airport operations according to the Air Canada website.
One set of flights was cancelled, which the website says was caused by unexpected maintenance issues.
In an email response, Air Inuit vice-president Marie-Noëlle Pronovost said she “acknowledges concerns raised regarding recent service delays,” and she appreciates the patience of travellers as “we continue to adapt to evolving circumstances.”
She said the addition of the Montreal-Kuujjuaq route “strengthens Air Inuit’s commitment to Nunavik,” but has introduced “complex scheduling realities.”
She said Kuujjuaq is a busy airport operating near capacity, and delays elsewhere create a “domino effect that is felt more acutely compared to larger southern locations.”
She points to “increasingly erratic weather patterns” caused by climate change, leading to unpredictable challenges.
A Boeing 737-800 combi aircraft was added to Air Inuit’s fleet and will go into service soon. This is expected to help the company’s overall passenger and freight capacities.
Air Inuit has also been working with Kativik Regional Government, Transport Canada and the Quebec government for runway and weather station upgrades.
“While we expect these measures to help reduce delays, they are not a catch-all solution,” said Pronovost. “Safety will always remain our top priority, and we ask for continued patience as we navigate these realities together.”
Imaha air on going headaches! If safety was the main concern they would not be using aircraft made in 1960s. You have better chances to arrive in a 1980s turbo prop, and even at that it’s often “mechanical”. Monopoly is a board game, not an airline🤑✈️
Air Inuit has zero airplanes made in the 1960s
Googled ” Air Inuit 737 jet fleet ” , it says airline has 8 average age is 32 yrs.
32 years ago was 1993, not the 1960s.
Let’s see – AIL took over route Aug 6/25 – Date of above story Nov 28/25
So what Marie-Noëlle Pronovost is asking us to believe is the weather changed so much in these 2 1/2 months from when Cdn North were running the route to never before seen disastrous climate happenings now, since AIL has the route.
I think not!
AIL should look inward rather than skyward to get to the root of the route issue.
Wait, an airline that’s giving worse service than Canadian North, well I’ll be damned.
I actually laughed out loud at this comment!!!
Climate change?!
Not an valid excuse
Blame the age of aircraft
Get 400s
Canadian North was doing a great job on this route. Canadian North knew how it was as the ownership group had it’s headquarters in YVP so it was a very political route.
The grass is always greener…
You can still fly Canadian North if you want to wait for a Saturday and fly out of a nice smaller less congested airport. It is a great option!
If you have flown out of Iqaluit you have seen a noticable difference in the on time performance. I know I was late on every flight I took and now I am often pushing back early.
You can see how hard the teams there are working. The ground crews are hustling and the customer service agents are doing all the right things to get the boarding started early.
Glad to see NN giving credit where it is due.
Hopefully Air Inuit can turn it around.
Oh my goodness, Air Inuit is beyond ridiculous. People who work for real Airlines view this one as an outright joke.
And now Air Inuit is blaming climate change? It’s always everything but Air Inuit’s fault. The fault is poor planning, lousy service, broken planes, staff not showing up, cargo left on the tarmac at Lagrande in the rain for hours and on it goes. And all this for the absolute highest rates charged anywhere in the industry.
Climate change? Is it too warm for you? Is it too cold for you? Didn’t you know your routes are in the Arctic?
Little Johnny, you say you didn’t do the homework because your dog ate it.
But Johnny, you don’t own a dog.
Please, please believe me, Miss Teacher. It’s my invisible dog.
LOL…. Plane delays because of climate change.
Competition will bring reliability, accountability, efficiency and better economics for people, businesses and the state. Only “First Nation” airlines policy is great for the handful of owners but terrible for individuals and the economy. Competition will grow Nunavut and Nunavik faster and stronger. We need large commercial carriers like Air Canada.
You talk about economy but you don’t understand the economic of running an airline. You mention Air Canada but there is a reason they are not flying these routes. The are long and thin meaning you fly long distances without full loads.
Sure they can take YUL to YVP or even YOW to YFB (Wait they tried and pulled out) and make money but your planes are better off flying 10 times a day to YYZ return full.
Who wants to bet well see an adams in a top high bod position /high paying job on the not too distant future…..
It’s perfect. Air Inuit already had the Montreal route through Kuujjuaq — it’s just Canadian North that left. So I don’t get why they’re complaining now. Kuujjuaq already gets most of the big routes and big money in Nunavik, while the rest of us are still lacking proper funding and services. Maybe this will finally show how much support Air Inuit needs from these bigger companies.